


A Crowded Cafe

by samswilson



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Cafes, Character death is mentioned, Coffee, Coffee Shops, F/F, Fluff, Hope is soft for Josie, I don’t know how to tag this, Josie is soft for Hope, LGBT, aka Klaus and Hayley and Elijah, but it’s like already happened
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 11:10:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20308516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samswilson/pseuds/samswilson
Summary: Hope Mikaelson was as far from a people person as one could get. Yet one fateful afternoon in a crowded cafe, she finds herself talking to a bright stranger named Josie.“It was almost like she enjoyed talking to this coffeehouse stranger.”





	A Crowded Cafe

Hope Mikaelson wasn’t, and would never be, a people person. She didn’t care for social interaction, finding it trivial and downright meaningless. Perhaps this is why her aunts had called her...closed off.

In truth, how was she supposed to be? She had lost not only her uncle, but her mother and even her father too. As if she wanted to put herself in the path of potentially more heartbreak. It just wasn’t worth it. 

However, this didn’t mean she confined herself away from the world never to be seen in the light of day. No. The girl still lived her life, just as one would. Save for unnecessary friend making or anything of the like. 

Hope did, however, enjoy spending most of her time inside a quaint coffee shop. It had some delicious espresso and the aroma of the pastries they baked all day long was too hard to resist. 

So, once a day, Hope would stop inside the coffee shop and grab herself something to drink. Occasionally, she might even grab a snack. Every other day, she would find a secluded table inside the homely cafe and have a seat where she could drink her coffee and read a book.

At least this way her remaining family wouldn’t worry too much about how little she was getting out.

Now, unfortunately, the cafe did have its moments where it would grow a little crowded. The coffee was pretty good, after all. But it was nothing that Hope couldn’t avoid.

Her table was pushed back into the corner with just two seats and a dimly lit Edison bulb hanging above it. It wasn’t necessarily picturesque and with the crowd, few people wanted to stay and fight for a seat.

It was a normal Tuesday afternoon and Hope ordered her usual coffee, a book in hand. When she heard the familiar chime of a bell, she collected her coffee and headed towards her table.

It’d been a mere ten minutes before a crowd started to form inside the cafe. The girl could hear the soft pitter patter of rain outside each time the door opened which indicated why some people were coming in.

Those without a jacket even elected to getting a drink and having a sit-down until the rain stopped or inevitably got worse. 

Hope decided to ignore it, able to tune out most of the meaningless chatter that surrounded her. 

_Most of it._

”Excuse me?” Hope’s eyes lifted from the pages of her story, glancing up at the owner of the voice over the book. 

A brunette girl with a soft smile and what smelled like hot chocolate in her hands stood beside the open seat. 

Someone had actually decided to talk to Hope. 

“Yes?” Hope responded after a second, her tone with just an edge of annoyance. 

The brunette let out somewhat of a nervous chuckle. “Sorry, just, is this seat taken?” 

Hope blinked back at her instead of replying. Her light blue eyes noted the lack of a discernible jacket around the girl’s shoulders. She then took notice of the full seats everywhere else in the coffee shop. 

“No.” The answer was reluctant but quite clear. 

The brunette smiled again, uttering a quick ‘Thank you’ as she sat down. Admittedly, Hope hadn’t permitted the stranger to sit down but it appeared like it was no use anyhow.

”I’m Josie.” At this moment, Hope had returned back to her story. She wasn’t expecting this coffee shop customer to keep going but she was. 

“Hope.”

Now, the Mikaelson girl thought her one-word answers would be enough to deter Josie but that obviously wasn’t the case.

“Guess the news was wrong,” Josie explained, nodding toward the nearest window that was covered in falling raining drops. “Definitely not sunny.”

Hope inwardly sighed. “Definitely.”

Yes, she hated social interaction and she was far from a people person. That didn’t mean she was rude, though. At least, most of the time. Point was, she wasn’t going to tell off Josie.

Not yet.

“What are you reading?” Josie persisted, sitting up in her chair.

Was the title on the spine not legible?

Hope’s eyes darted off the pages and back up at Josie now. She noticed the girl had shifted her body to face her, instead of away like it had been. 

“_Gulliver’s Travels_,” she admitted, her voice flat. It should have been clear that she didn’t want to talk but the brunette was not picking this up at all.

Josie seemed to light up for a moment which shocked Hope a little. “My father used to read that to my sister and I every night before bed.”

That was...quaint?

”It’s a good book, I like it,” she continued, the smile that graced her lips soft and eliciting warmth. She was clearly fond of the memory. 

“So do I,” Hope confessed after a moment of prolonged silence. Perhaps it was the somewhat touching reaction that Josie got from the book or maybe Hope was just bored, but she continued. “I’ve read it before, it’s just something I like rereading.”

Josie nodded in understanding. “Are you taking recommendations?”

_No._

”Go ahead,” Hope said instead, only prompting Josie to light up more. It was like no one ever asked her to talk. 

Josie was quiet for a moment, her face etched with thought. “_Fahrenheit 451_,” she decided after some deliberation. “Or _Treasure Island_.”

Hope quirked an eyebrow almost instantly. She’d heard of both of those books as they were classics to most but she’d never gotten around to reading them no matter how good they sounded.

She was just shocked this stranger was able to recommend something she might _actually_ enjoy for a change.

”They’re some of my favorites,” the brunette added, finally taking a sip of her hot chocolate as it had now cooled considerably. “My sister Lizzie’s always been more into fairy tales.”

”You’re not?”

Josie let out an amused sort of sigh. “Yes and no? It’s sort of hard to share interests with her, but they’re not my favorite either way.”

Hope sat back in her chair, shutting her book without even sparing a glance toward the page number to remember later. “And why not?”

”My sister’s more of the princess type. Between the two of us, I mean. She takes a lot after our mom.” 

Maybe it was the family talk that was keeping Hope going but she sat, listening attentively. 

“It’s hard to explain but you’d understand immediately if you met them,” Josie said, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear as she spoke. Hope noticed she’d done that a few times now, like it was a sort of nervous tick.

”Is this the time for the ‘you can be anything you want’ talk?” Hope questioned, her tone much more playful than it had ever been with anyone who wasn’t family. It was almost like she enjoyed talking to this coffeehouse stranger. 

Josie couldn’t help but let out a laugh. It was light and airy, surely brightening the mood of anyone who would hear it. “Maybe.” 

Hope let a smile of the lightest contentment cross her face. Though, just as soon as it had appeared, it had vanished. It was like she realized what she had been doing and pulled herself back.

She sat up, clearing her throat. “Right. Well, thanks for the recommendation.” 

Josie nodded, giving the nearby window a passing glance. By now, the sun was peering out and the water against the glass was drying with the clouds having dissipated. “Looks like I should get going.”

Hope hummed in response, not intending to argue as the brunette got to her feet and pushed in her chair. 

“It was nice to meet you!” She smiled broadly towards Hope, clearly having enjoyed their encounter. Josie didn’t even take much notice as Hope just nodded instead of agreeing.

She exited the coffee shop not even a moment later, as others soon did. The once quaint coffee shop returned to normalcy, only a few customers here and there and the intermittent ding of a bell signaling a new customer walking in.

Hope Mikaelson, however, was left sitting at her usual table with a closed book in her hands. Her coffee, though half empty, had gone mostly cold as had her scone.

She frowned, slumping in her seat now as she stared down the all too plain cover of the story in her hands.

She didn’t feel like reading anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> my first piece of work on this site ! now, originally, this was supposed to be only one chapter like a sort of one shot but,,,clearly that’s not where this is going
> 
> stay tuned! (it will only be about two more chapters, maybe three)


End file.
